Language requirements for international students are too low

We've known about these deficiencies and these problems among international students for some time surely?? Their language disadvantages do affect their performance and it is therefore both cruel and ignorant to recruit students with such easily detectable deficiencies. It is plainly stupid to think that international students immerse themselves in their host language ... few do. Most international students ghettoise themselves on or off campus and immerse themselves in their own language. I have found International students at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels to be wanting because of their language NOT because of their intellect. I have also found international students to be, in the main, dignified and accommodating with an impressive work ethic. Let's not try and kid ourselves here, the importance of international students to a University is financial. Yes of course it should also be academic and cultural in equal measure, but it isn't. So good luck with the good idea of increasing the IELTS score because doing so will shrink the lucrative pool from which these students are drawn.

This finding, which is perhaps not unexpected, is the reason I do not like to see research groups consiting of only one ethnicity - PhD students who just see and speak with other students from the same ethnic group do tend to not improve their language skills at the rate they should.

"We've known about these deficiencies and these problems among international students for some time surely?" Yes Descartes, and some Universities 'employ' translators to translate lectures for those not fluent enough in English to follow the lecturer directly. Of course they should be able to IF their IELTS score was actually what they should have scored, not a score awarded following a suitable payment/bribe. The extra income from 'pre-sessionals' is valued by the University, how many actually benefit from attending however is another question.

Sadly enough english is not everything. English didn’t make UK best place in Europe, it didn’t also stop Brexit. There is too much emphasis on this language, but human lives do not seem to circle around it. True, some of us our minds don’t have that volume of vocabulary. China has become a much greater nation, and quite obviously, they are less obsessive with IELTS. I hope one day we can have more options than just one language, as the white western language.

What the article says is kind of true, but the study they cite here is too partial. Chinese students (and Asian students in general) have undoubtedly more problems with English than Europeans or Africans: their language is so different that it really takes a lot of time and effort to improve English. Also, China being such a competitive and big country, their study of the language tends to be test-oriented, often differing from their actual level of English.

“Most international students ghettoise themselves on or off campus and immerse themselves in their own language.” While I agree largely with your perspective Descartes, I’d stress that many international students do not ghettoise themselves. Rather they are ghettoised by circumstances and denied the opportunity to immerse themselves in the host country language. Many Master’s students are on courses where the vast majority of participants are from the same country and may well be placed in halls of residence where the residents are mostly of the same nationality and mother tongue. Most universities have been complicit in creating this situation in their drive to compete for international fees.

I totally agree with your parting sentence. As for your other sentiments?? well, I think we're expressing the same view aren't we??

My point was that they do not choose to be ghettoised. "Ghettoise themselves" suggests that the responsibility is theirs. I've known university staff - both administrators and academics - to criticise Chinese students for not integrating and not speaking enough English - when in reality these students are recruited into a largely monolingual environment. But otherwise, yes we are arguing the same thing.

I have 2 comments: (1) I think we might not need a study to understand that non-English speaking students can not do as well as home students in terms of language competency. (2) The question is not about shifting the language bars but about how hungry universities are for the lucrative sources of international students rather than the altruistic concerns of their actual performance.